BOSS LEWIS

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The 22-year-old rookie McLaren driver showed the Spaniard who was boss as he grabbed second spot for today's Turkish Grand Prix.

He may have lost pole position to Ferrari's Felipe Massa, but he put his whingeing team-mate in the shade in the baking 35-degree heat of Istanbul.

Rather than recovering the championship initiative after losing in Hungary, Alonso will have to start fourth, staring up Hamilton's exhaust.

And even if they will not openly admit it, McLaren's bosses demonstrated that their drivers' bitter battle is just too hot to handle.

To avoid a repeat of the Hungary qualifying shenanigans they gave each of the warring duo his own pit and pit crew.

It was the most obvious demonstration that for all Ron Dennis's talk of a team united by Thursday's discussions, there are now officially two camps at McLaren: Team Hamilton and Team Alonso.

Hamilton refused to follow team qualifying strategy in Hungary by allowing Alonso to go first and the man from Oviedo got his revenge by hogging the pit-stop slot.

"We had two pit crews this time and it worked out quite well," said Hamilton. "I am very, very happy with second.

"I didn't do well in the first two sessions and wasn't sure I could do it but I hung it out there and put everything together.

"In the race we stand in good stead for a competitive race with Ferrari."

Hamilton's engineers were still celebrating his performance as Massa gunned over the line to steal the glory in the final seconds on the track where he set the first pole and victory of his career 12 months ago.

But Britain's Grand Prix sensation Hamilton said that with Kimi Raikkonen starting third after making two uncharacteristic mistakes, pace-setters Ferrari are every bit as much a threat as Alonso.

"I just have to get as many points as possible and finish ahead of Fernando, but it would be good for us just to finish ahead of both Ferraris," he added.

Massa joked that the slim five-hundredths of a second difference came down to a quick visit to the loo before qualifying.

Among the rest of the Brits, Anthony Davison equalled his best qualifying performance of the year to start 11th and David Coulthard is 13th. Jenson Button qualified 15th but is to start last after being penalised 10 places for an engine change.